[Overdue Review] Kingdom Rush

by Senior Stiv

In my never ending pursuit to play games I should’ve played years ago, mobile games are at the top of the list. Continuing to dig around the app-store on my iPhone I came across Kingdom Rush and fell in love with this brilliant, yet simple Tower Defense game.

Originally starting as a free browser flash game by Armor Games, it soon made its way to iPhone and iPad thanks to the games popularity.

You’re a general of the imperial army and you must protect the realm from evil creatures and soldiers looking to destroy your King’s Empire. There really isn’t any kind of a major plot to the story, but the gameplay offers enough entertainment it doesn’t really matter.

The main object of each level is to prevent your enemies from reaching the end of a path you’re tasked with protecting, very similar to Orcs Must Die’s style of tower defense. Each wave becomes progressively stronger, as do the enemies offering tougher challenges as you move forward through the game.

You’re given four basic tower types to defend your paths. Archers rain arrows down on your enemies. Barracks train soldiers to help slow down advancing forces. Dwarven Cannons help deal massive amounts of spread damage. And, lastly the mages guild which fires off powerful spells to devastate enemies. Each one plays its part and are quite useful when using them in tandem.

Each tower can be upgraded and to make them even stronger. And to make things even cooler you can upgrade your towers to specialized powerhouses. The archers roost, for example, can turned into a Ranger’s Hideout or a Rifleman’s Nest, depending on if you’re looking for speed or accuracy. Either way it’s going to be devastating.

You’ll also have abilities to offer some help against the massive hoards of attackers. Some offer massive area effect damage by raining fire down on your enemies. Or you can also call in some additional reinforcements to slow enemies down.

Varying enemy types forces you to be creative with your tower set-ups. You may have to restart a battle several times over before you find the right combination to take on your enemies. I had to do this several times actually.

Kingdom Rush also has an entertaining upgrade system for your abilities and your towers. These can include improving attack range, damage or even reducing the price of certain buildings. Upgrades to your towers abilities can purchased by using stars you earn from winning battles. The number of stars you earn is based on your ability in battle. If you finish your battle perfectly or let one or two slip past you you’ll earn three stars. Anymore make it past your defenses and you’ll lose more stars, limiting your spending.

The game is smooth and plays beautifully on a mobile device. You can still find the game for free on Armor Games website or Kongregate.com. The mobile version will cost you, but for only $0.99 it’s worth the dollar. Overall the game is worth your time and having it on mobile it’ll hopefully kill some for you too.